If you want to impress someone -- say, four of the country's most influential real estate prospectors -- it makes sense to start here.

And so, while the city bustled to do its rock 'n' roll best two weekends ago, a much smaller yet vital effort to showcase the region started with breakfast served on Royal Doulton china in the 55th-floor conference room at Key Tower.

Over the next 40 hours, the region's savviest business boosters would squire three men and one woman to private confabs with the region's brightest minds and most powerful leaders.

The four picked virtual flowers at the NASA Glenn Research Center, ate killer cheesecake in Bratenahl and thrilled to guitar licks from rock icons Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Why the red carpet? These four can make new business happen.

They are among the best of some 2,000 "site selectors" nationwide, experts in the data-crunching art of matching businesses with sites for expansion or relocation.

A new plant or corporate headquarters are manna for job-starved regions like ours. So top site consultants are peppered with invitations from cities and regions, often linked with high-profile events.

"I could do it every weekend if I said yes," says Noah Shlaes, a manager of strategic consulting for Grubb & Ellis Co. in Chicago.

Team NEO, the region's business-attraction organization, used the induction ceremonies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to lure Shlaes, three other site selectors and their spouses to an all-expenses-paid familiarization tour -- "fam tour," in the marketing parlance.

"It all comes down to making sure these people leave with a clear view that there are a lot of smart people in Northeast Ohio . . . and a very sound business base," Waltermire says. "They shouldn't hesitate to recommend to clients that we should be on the list as they consider locations around the country."

The region can be a tough sale. If the site selectors' queries and comments are indicative, our cold weather, rust belt image, union activity and declining population turn business prospects away.

Team NEO knows this. There's nothing to be done about the "diverse weather patterns," as Waltermire describes them.

But Team NEO is prepared to bolster the region's image with a two-day blast of "Cleveland Plus" -- the marketing motto that economic development organizations from Youngstown to Lorain use to brand the region's business and quality-of-life assets.

KeyCorp Vice Chairwoman Beth Mooney does the official welcome in a honeyed, Texas twang -- and immediately scores points.

Kate McEnroe, a site consultant from Atlanta, says later that her best friend ran an acclaimed economic development agency in Nashville, Tenn., which Mooney once chaired.

The presence of top business leaders builds credibility for the image-building effort, McEnroe said.

"I'm not exactly sure how it will translate," McEnroe said during a post-tour interview, "but you know it's a good thing."

After breakfast, Waltermire directs consultants to a bank of windows to view remnants of old industry and prospects for new.

To the north, Lake Erie runs to the horizon, fronted by port docks and buildings dedicated to football, science and rock 'n' roll.

Waltermire points to the Cleveland Convention Center and speaks of the new center and proposed medical mart.

The latter would be referred to often. But the politics and turf wars that slow the project are never mentioned.

9:05 a.m. -- The consultants and Team NEO crew climb aboard a plush limousine coach and head down Euclid Avenue.

Chris Ronayne, the high-energy president of University Circle Inc., launches a tour guide's patter, touching on everything from Moses Cleaveland and Iron Chef Michael Symon to PlayhouseSquare and the Euclid Tavern.

They are emblematic of the industrial decay that Cleveland and its peer cities, like Baltimore and Pittsburgh, struggle to overcome, says guest Chris Steele, who runs a site-consulting company in a Boston suburb.

"There's a strong quality of life and strong possibilities of economic engines, but the transition is incomplete," Steele says diplomatically.

10 a.m. -- The site consultants step into the center of the region's largest engine, taking seats at the Cleveland Clinic's boardroom table.

They hear about emerging business activity and innovation across the region, in areas including polymers, liquid crystals, medical imaging and wind power.

Biomedical is already a strength, something the site consultants know.

"Fifty out of 50 states are making a play" for bioscience business, McEnroe says later. "Here, it's real."

The health-crusading Cosgrove notes that visitors would be hard-pressed to find a french fry or a smoker anywhere on the Clinic campus.

Cosgrove's pitch is a weekend highlight, the site consultants later agreed.

The Clinic's growth and innovation say a lot about the region's pool of talent, Shlaes says.

"Companies don't select a building, they select a region," he says. "The difference between a good and great labor market will dwarf the difference between a good and bad real estate deal."

2 p.m. -- Some ofthe region's brainiest labor is on display at the NASA Glenn campus in Brook Park.

Site consultants peer down a 510-foot micro-gravity chamber; stand in a wind tunnel, where engineers study icing on aircraft wings; and don 3-D glasses for a virtual inspection of a space service module.

A few hours later, Shlaes and the site consultants sip beer at Great Lakes Brewing. Shlaes marvels at the "sheer force of will" at NASA.

"One guy there said it beautifully," Shlaes recalls. " 'It's hard to get these guys to go home.' "

Saturday, April 4, 9:20 a.m. -- In the Founder's Room at Quicken Loans Arena, Tim Timken, fifth-generation head of the Timken Co., tells site consultants he's prepping a sixth generation to manage the bearings and steel maker.

Growing up, his kids liked steel-making videos better than "Barney."

Timken says he has lived on both coasts, and the Midwest business climate is friendlier.

Site selectors want to know his experience with organized labor. The company runs union and nonunion plants.

"It's possible to do both," Timken says. "It can be a challenge with work rules, but there's flexibility."

Next, university presidents sit shoulder to shoulder.

University of Akron's Luis Proenza and Case Western Reserve University's Barbara Snyder talk of commercializing academic research and efforts to keep college talent in the region.

The latter issue is important -- the number of college-educated Ohio residents lags the national average, a fact that companies seeking highly skilled labor notice.

A Cleveland State University economist pinpoints particular labor strengths here, such as industrial design and polymer science.

"In these, we are locally thick in talent that is globally scarce," says Edward "Ned" Hill, CSU's vice president for economic development.

1:30 p.m. -- The working weekend ends with lunch on the lakeside patio of the stately Shoreby Club, inside one of Bratenahl's gated communities.

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